While the fate of the Vatican’s criminal prosecution over the infamous London property deal appears to hang in the balance in the city state’s court, a number of legal developments in Rome and abroad suggest the case could be on the verge of collapse.
While that result would be a near-nightmare scenario for prosecutors in the Vatican, with a six-year legal process ending in humiliation, it could also leave the Holy See open to more financial losses stemming from a deal which has already cost the Vatican hundreds of millions.
Such a result seems like something the Vatican should be straining to avoid at all costs, but recent developments suggest the Secretariat of State is itself sabotaging its own legal efforts to claw back losses, potentially leaving itself exposed to millions more in liabilities in the process.
It is unclear what strategy the Secretariat of State is pursuing in its apparently conscious disengagement from its own case — or to what end. But, for now, the potential risks seem all too clear.
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